Mrs. Eddy says of God, as the Neoplatonists do of the one, that he is indefinable: “God, good, is self-existent and self-expressed, though indefinable as a whole.”[1] Plotinus emphasizing Plato's thought, says: “The One is ineffable in spoken or written word.”[2] Nevertheless, Mrs. Eddy undertakes to define God, and the Neoplatonists attempt to describe the one.
She defines God as “Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.”[3] In the margin these terms are designated as “Divine Synonyms.” The initial letters being capitals is interesting. Again she says: “When the term Divine Principle is used to signify Deity, it may seem distant or cold, until better apprehended. This Principle is Mind, Substance, Life, Truth, Love. When understood, Principle is found to be the only term that fully conveys the ideas of God.”[4] Let it then be fixed in our thought that when Mrs. Eddy uses the word God she means principle. This she says expressly, and she builds up her system upon this conception of God. In this she is consistent. The definition is in harmony with her position that God and all reality are identical; that God is all that really is, and that all that really is is God.[5]
Whether these conceptions of God be true or not, one thing is true, that Mrs. Eddy in thus thinking is thinking the thoughts of others, but
- ↑ S. and H. p. 213.
- ↑ 6. 9. 4. Tr. by Fuller.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 115.
- ↑ No and Yes. p. 29.
- ↑ Cf. No and Yes. p. 47, and S. and H. p. 113.
